Under New Plan, Big Tech Would Help Determine If You're Eligible To Own a Gun

The Trump administration is considering a proposal that would allow large technology companies to collect data on users that would help determine whether they should be considered mentally fit to own a firearm, according to The Washington Post.

Essentially, the proposal would have the federal government collecting information from Google, Amazon and Apple related to users’ mental health.

It is part of a push to create a Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, which would be a part of the Health and Human Services Department, The Post reported. Modeled after the Pentagon’s innovative Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, HARPA would have its own budget, and the director would be a presidential appointee.

The idea of instituting HARPA is not necessarily new, as it was first floated in 2017. Recent mass shootings and the discussion around mental health and guns, however, have thrust it back into the realm of possibility.

The specific, technology-related proposal came from the Suzanne Wright Foundation. The organization — founded by Bob Wright, a friend of Donald Trump’s — approached the president with a desire to include a project called Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes, or SAFE HOME. 

Under the plan, HARPA would develop “breakthrough technologies with high specificity and sensitivity for early diagnosis of neuropsychiatric violence. A multi-modality solution, along with real-time data analytics, is needed to achieve such an accurate diagnosis.”

Among the potential technologies that could be used to collect data are Google Home and Amazon Echo “smart speakers,” Apple Watches and Fitbit activity trackers.

In short, the federal government would be using liberal big tech companies to collect information that would help determine whether or not individuals should own a gun.

While keeping guns out of the hands of those who would commit such violence is a worthy goal, this is definitely not the way to accomplish it. In fact, the proposal is wrong in two distinct ways. 

First, adding a new regulatory agency that increases the reach of the federal government is a terrible idea. This would make the government even bigger in size, which is more expensive, and influence, which is more intrusive.

The federal government has no business listening in to private conversations at all, especially when the revocation of constitutional rights is involved.

Second, Big Tech isn’t exactly viewpoint neutral when it comes to politics. It’s not a stretch to assume that almost all of those involved with such a program at Google, Amazon or Apple think we already have too many people that own guns.

The next thing you know, they’ll be flagging people whose Echos catch them raising their voice in their own home.

That might be an exaggeration of the SAFE HOME project as it currently stands, but there’s no denying that the slope is slippery. We can’t go down this path. 

White House sources told The Post that Trump reacted “very positively” to the proposal to create HARPA, though it was unclear whether he had learned about the SAFE HOME project.

The electorate voted in Donald Trump with the hope that he would govern conservatively, especially on issues such as the size of government and gun control.

So far, he has done pretty well in that regard, but that must continue. Big tech companies have shown they’re incapable of playing the role of neutral arbiter, and trusting their data to determine who can buy a gun would be a terrible mistake.

President Trump, please don’t make that mistake.